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Instructor Literature Series— No. 405C (Double Number) 



E 757 
.B89 
Copy 1 



ROOSEVELT 

BY M. G. BRUMBAUGH 




F. (A. OWEN PUBLISHING CO. 
DANSVILLB, N. Y. 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 



The Story of 

Theodore Roosevelt 



y Br 

cTVIARTIN G. BRUMBAUGH, PH.D., LL.D. 

Former Superintendent of Schools, Philadelphia ; 

Former Governor of Pennsylvania; Author, 

"The Making of a Teacher," etc. 




F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

DANSVILLE, N. Y. 



E75-7 



COPYBIOHT. 1922 
F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY 

The Story of Roosevelt 



©C1AG08000 

JAN 22 '23 



THE ROOSEVELT CREED 

I believe in honesty, sincerity, and the 
square deal. 

I believe in making up one's mind what to 
do and doing it. 

I believe in fearing God and taking one's 
own part. 

I believe in hitting the line hard when you 
are right. 

T believe in speaking softly and carrying a 
big stick. 

I believe in hard work and honest sport. 

I believe in a sane mind in a sane body. 

I believe we have room for but one soul 
loyalty and that is a loyalty to the 
American people. 



\f^ 



^Htx' 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

ANCESTRY AND BOYHOOD 

When one thinks of the kind of man that Americans 
want an American to be one naturally thinks of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. He was in so many ways an example 
of fine citizenship that he is held up to the youth of our 
land as a type of what they may well strive to be. And 
he won this place in the hearts of our people by hard 
work. He did not easily become a sturdy, active, 
strenuous leader of his fellows. His whole life was a 
struggle: first, a struggle to become physically fit, 
then a struggle to become mentally fit, and finally a 
struggle to become politically fit. Things did not come 
easily to young Roosevelt. 

He was born in New York City, October 27, 1858. 
His mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, belonged to an 
honored Southern family. Her people were of Scotch 
descent, with some traces of Huguenot and English 
blood in the family. Archibald Bulloch, his mother's 
great grandfather, was the first ''President" of Geor- 
gia when that colony joined the others in opposing 
Great Britain. The Bulloch homestead at Roswell, 
near Atlanta, was on the line of Shennan's march to- 
the sea and the soldiers carried away many of the 
books and much of the light furniture of their home. 
Years afterward, when Theodore Roosevelt was Presi- 
dent, a soldier sent him one of these books — Gray's 
Poems, printed in Glasgow. To young Roosevelt his 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 



mother's home was always a sacred -spot and he was 
never tired of hearing stories of the life there. 

His father, Theodore Roosevelt, also born in New 
York City, was a direct descendant of Klaes Martens- 
zen Van Roosevelt, who was born in Holland and came 
to America about 1644. His father's mother was a 
Pennsylvanian. On his father's side he had Dutch, 

Quaker and Irish for- 
bears. The mingling 
of all these important 
lines of descent gave 
Roosevelt an all-round 
American ancestry. 
This may explain the 
fact that he was so 
well able to under- 
stand his fellow citi- 
zens and to mingle 
with them in an easy 
and friendly way. 
This fine family in- 
heritance was, no 
doubt, of great ser- 
vice in giving young 
Roosevelt the moral 
chivalry, dignity, and 
courtesy that he exhibited in public and private life. 
He was a weak child physically, but his father did 
all that a far-seeing parent could to help the boy to a 
healthy, vigorous body. At nine years of age he suf- 
fered from asthma. His father built a porch gymna- 
sium for him on the upper floor of their house on East 
Twentieth Street. When the boy was taken to this 
gymnasium his father said, ^'Theodore, you have the 
brains, but brains are of little use without the body; 




Theodore Roosevelt at 10 Years of Age 

(Courtesy of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson and 
Charles Scribner's Sons.) 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 7 

you have to make your body, and it lies with you to 
make it. It's dull, hard work, but you can do it." And 
he did it. Daily he practiced with bars and rings and 
weights. 

The family spent the summers in the country, and 
Theodore, a barefoot American boy, was genuinely 
happy with his cats, dogs, rabbits, a coon, and a pony 
named General Grant. Here also he played Indian and 
frequently stained his clothes as well as his face with 
poke-berry juice. 

His weak body prevented him from attending public 
school. He was taught by tutors and in the private 
school of Professor McMullen. At the age of ten and 
again four years later he was taken to Europe, and on 
the second trip he was especially interested in the 
birds of Egypt and of Palestine. His specimens, thus 
early gathered, he later gave to the Smithsonian In- 
stitution. Upon his return to America at the age of 
fifteen he was taken in hand by Mr. Arthur Cutler to 
be prepared for entrance to college. At this time he 
also continued his studies in natural history and thus 
laid the foundation for a lifelong interest in wild life 
and a longing to see animals in their homes and 
haunts. It was this early love of nature that carried 
him in mature life to Africa and to South America. 

The vacations of his later boyhood were spent in the 
woods of Maine, where he hunted, fished, trapped, 
paddled, rowed and gradually made himself physically 
fit. Once he was sent alone to Moosehead Lake in 
Maine. A stagecoach took him the last part of the 
journey. In the coach were two boys of about his own 
age, and as he says in his Autobiography, these boys 
"proceeded to make life miserable'' for him. Theo- 
dore was not much hurt in the struggle that ensued 
but he was very much ashamed of the fact that he 



8 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

could not defend himself. Then and there he decided 
to take lessons in self-defense. 



COLLEGE AND EARLY POLITICAL LIFE 

He entered Harvard College in the fall of 1876. Be- 
coming interested in the subject of the naval history 
of the War of 1812, he compiled notes which eventually 
became a two-volume book, published two years after 
his graduation. It was warmly commended by his- 
torians and other critics. In college he did not care 
for the formal compositions he was required to pre- 
pare, nor was he at all interested in public debate. 
He gave his time to his studies, to his health, and to 
the development of his social sense. 

Engaging in many activities, Roosevelt easily 
found in his college life how to live in a large way with 
his fellow students. This was especially fortunate, 
because his weak body had kept him from that wide 
contact with others so essential to a rounded character. 
Here he learned not only the theories of social life but 
the method of living in a helpful way with his kind. 
While young Roosevelt was in college his father died, 
at the age of forty-six, a loss the son felt most keenly. 
Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, had impressed upon his 
son that one must work and make his own way in the 
world. He also stressed the fact that if one is to give 
himself to scientific study and not to the earning of 
large sums of money he must also decide not to spend 
money. This vital lesson of living within one's income 
was of great value to the young man. In a way, it de- 
cided his economic thinking and influenced all his pub- 
lic utterances. 

When he graduated in 1880, twenty-second in his 
class, Roosevelt had not fully mapped out his future. 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 



9 



His early interests had been in the field of natural 
science, but he decided he did not want to spend his 
life as a professor. He considered the law, but did 
not like that profession. He did not believe in the jus- 
tice of the maxim "Let the buyer beware." Both in 
law and in business he thought that the seller should 
not profit at the expense of the buyer, but that all bar- 
gains should be to the profit of both. He believed fully 

in justice but not in 
legalism. He could 
not bring himself to 
the idea that it is 
right for a lawyer to 
take the side he knows 
to be in the wrong. 
He knew, too, that his 
father had left him 
financially independ- 
ent. The young man 
finally decided to give 
his life to the service 
of the public rather 
than to the selfish pur- 
pose of increasing his 
own fortune. 

In October of the 
year that he left Har- 
vard, Roosevelt was married to Miss Alice Hathaway 
Lee, who belonged to a distinguished Boston family. 
They traveled abroad for a time and returned to reside 
in New York.,/ 

When Roosevelt decided that he would take an ac- 
tive- part in the political life of his country, it was 
partly because he scorned the men who felt free to sit 
back and criticize the government. He scorned also 




Theodore Roosevelt as a Youth of 16, 
at Oyster Bay 

(Courtesy of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson and 
Charles Scribner's Sons.) 



10 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

the mean-minded men who for selfish reasons set 
themselves up as political leaders. He decided it was 
one's duty to "pull his own weight in the boat" and 
not to be pulled by others. Some of his wealthy 
friends told him political life was low, that it was not 
to his social advantage to get mixed up with common 
folks. Roosevelt replied that common folks were 
really the governing class and that they were well 
worth knowing and helping. He decided to seek a seat 
in the New York State Assembly. In this he was aid- 
ed by Joe Murray, a leader among the rough-and- 
tumble gangs of the East Side in New York. Murray 
was square, fearless and loyal. He nominated Roose- 
velt, against the wishes and efforts of the political 
bosses, and saw him elected in 1881, and twice re- 
elected. 

Roosevelt has been criticized for making friends 
with Joe Murray and men of his sort, known in the 
cities as small-fry politicians. But he defended his 
friendship by declaring that no man is fit to do good 
work in our American democracy unless he is able to 
have a genuine fellow-feeling and sympathy with his 
compatriots, whatever their creed, origin or place in 
life. He fellowshipped with any man who was really 
American in spirit and denounced all those who were 
not. This spirit led him to regard Jacob Riis, who had 
once been a poor young immigrant from Denmark, as 
the best American he ever knew. 

Roosevelt's Albany career was a constant fight for 
decency and honesty. In his capacity as chairman of 
the Committee on Cities he was anxious to secure the 
enactment of a law to provide better terminal facili- 
ties for a railroad company. His associates refused to 
vote the bill out of the committee. Roosevelt an- 
nounced that he would report it. This caused a great 



THE STORY OF ROOSLVELT 11 

uproar. Evidently soiTie of the coinmit!/?.o wanted to 
receive money before voting on the bill, ic was finally 
passed. The young man had put the bribe-taking 
crowd to flight. He had v/on his spurs as a legislator. 

A judge in the state had shown himself guilty of 
improper if not illegal relations with certain selfish 
interests. It stirred young Roosevelt to action. He 
demanded the impeachment of the unworthy judge. 
A storm of protests arose in the Assembly. He was 
voted down. Day after day for eight days he came 
back to the attack. His enemies gave up the fight. 
The young legislator won, with only six votes against 
his motion. It was a great moral victory. 

A bill came up to prohibit the manufacture of cigars 
in tenement houses. Roosevelt v/as placed upon a com- 
mittee to investigate the subject. He went into the 
tenement houses. He found living in one room three 
men, two women, and several children. Here such 
families ate, slept, lived and made cigars — all in one 
room. Roosevelt supported the bill. It was vigorous- 
ly opposed by those capitalists who were coining 
money from the foul conditions the young man saw. 
The bill passed and was approved by Governor Cleve- 
land, who later became President of the United States. 

In these early fights for the right Roosevelt finally 
came to the conclusion that he could not accomplish 
much unless he had the aid of other men, men whom 
he did not think of as possessing large views or hu- 
mane ideals, but men who had the votes and power to 
help or hinder him. He told his friend Jacob Riis that 
if he were to be of use he must work with men as they 
are. "As long as the good in them overbalances the 
evil I will work with them for the best that can be 
got." This did not in any way lower his own ideals 
but gave him a basis of success in his entire political 



12 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 



career. He made the most of conditions as he found 
them. He fought steadily to improve the conditions. 
At the proper time, when education of the pubHc mind 
had advanced, he strove for the wiser, the better, the 
loftier things, and he usually won. 

When Blaine was nominated in 1884 there arose the 
Mugwump opposition — so-called by Charles A. Dana, 
editor of the New York Su7i. Roosevelt served as a 
delegate to the Republi- 
can National Conven- 
tion in Chicago and 
was known there as an 
anti-Blaine leader. But 
after the nomination he 
believed it his duty to 
support the candidate 
of the party. This 
stand led Roosevelt's 
friends to charge him 
with impulsiveness. 
Indeed, in his long pub- 
lic career, that charge 
was made time after 
time. Roosevelt denied 
that he was impulsive. 
He thought things out 
in advance. He knew 
when occasion arose 
just what he would do. 
He was thus ready to 
act. His prompt action was called impulsiveness, but 
he himself says, 'It was nothing of the sort." It really 
was foresight and preparedness. Preparedness he be- 
lieved in both for persons and for nations. He had no 
use for the typical pacifist. 




Theodore Roosevelt in His Freshman 
Year at Harvard— 1876. 

(Courtesy of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson and 
Charles Scribner's Sons. ) 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 13 

AS A RANCHMAN 

While still an Assemblyman, Roosevelt tasted life 
on the plains. In September, 1883, he left the train 
at a little town called Medora, in North Dakota. He 
struck up an acquaintance with two brothers named 
Ferris, went buffalo hunting with them, and with them 
as partners bought the Chimney Butte Ranch near the 
Little Missouri River. He used as his brand the Mal- 
tese cross. Because his poor sight compelled him to 
wear spectacles, Roosevelt the ranch owner was known 
as **Four Eyes." It was thus he began his long and 
valuable training as a frontiersman. 

In 1884, saddened by the death of both his wife and 
his mother, he again went West. While retaining 
Chimney Butte Ranch, he started another, Elkhom 
Ranch, having sent for two Maine woodsman friends, 
Sewall and Dow, to help him. In building the house 
for Elkhorn Ranch, Roosevelt helped the others cut 
the necessary cottonwood logs. Someone asked Dow 
what the total cut for one day was, and he replied, 
*'Well, Bill (Sewall) cut down fifty-three, I cut forty- 
nine, and the boss he 'beavered' down seventeen." 

The round-ups for the purpose of branding the 
young animals were always occasions of great interest. 
They were often times of trouble, and if a roundsman 
was looking for a fight he could easily have one. But 
Roosevelt found that if a man avoided brag and blus- 
ter, did his work well, and never forced himself unduly 
upon his fellows he got along well. These hardy men 
of the plains were at heart real Americans and loved 
their country and the ideals of liberty and justice. On 
many occasions the round-up requires much daring 
and great endurance. Roosevelt once was in the sad- 
dle continuously for sixteen hours, on another occasion 



14 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

for twenty-four hours and once for nearly forty hours. 

His lessons in boxing stood him in good stead, and 
many are the stories of the foolish ranchers and cow- 
boys that came to grief through his skill, not his 
strength. He kept up the boxing even when he was 
President until, in a friendly bout with a young ar- 
tillery captain, his left eye was injured so severely 
that ever afterward its vision was dim. He said, *'If 
it had been the right eye I should have been entirely 
unable to shoot." 

Roosevelt's struggle for health was finally success- 
ful. The life of the plains and mountains put into his 
body the fine vigor and tireless energy that showed it- 
self in all his mature years. "Bill" Sewall said, "He 
went to Dakota a frail young man, suffering from 
asthma and stomach trouble. When he got back into 
the world again he was as husky as almost any man I 
have ever seen who wasn't dependent on his arms for 
his livelihood. He weighed one hundred and fifty 
pounds, and was clear bone, muscle and grit." And he 
had won the respect, admiration, and love of the cow- 
boys. 

His heroic example in gaining for himself the 
strength of body so necessary to a successful career is 
an inspiration to all young Americans. Physical fit- 
ness is the basis of intellectual and moral fitness. A 
nation that does not directly train for physical power 
in its people will never achieve leadership or accom- 
plish large services for mankind. 

In the fall of 1886, Roosevelt at his Elkhom Ranch 
read in the newspapers that he had been nominated by 
the Independents to run for mayor of New York City. 
He returned to the East to enter the campaign. But 
even with the Republican support which he received, 
he was unable to overthrow Tammany. After his de- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 15 

feat oy Abram S. Hewitt, he sailed for England, and 
in London he was married to Miss Edith Kermit 
Carow of New York, who had been a friend of his 
sister Corinne and himself since childhood. The cou- 
ple returned to New York, and Roosevelt thereafter, 
although he still journeyed to his ranch for vacations, 
devoted himself chiefly to political affairs. In 1888 he 
went on the stump for General Harrison, in the Pres- 
idential campaign, and Harrison, after taking office, 
appointed Roosevelt a Civil Service Commissioner. In 
New York he had to fight the old, deep-set, vicious sys- 
tem of politics that proclaimed 'To the victor belong 
the spoils." He gave life and meaning to the merit 
system and successfully fought its enemies in public 
life. His six years in this office greatly advanced civil 
reform and taught all Americans, save the office-seek- 
ing horde, that public office is a public trust, and that 
only those should hold office who honestly and capably 
serve the whole people. / 

A NEW KIND OF POLICE COMMISSIONER 

In 1895, when Mayor Strong came into office in New 
York, Roosevelt became president of the Police Com- 
mission. He accepted this post knowing well that 
there was much important work to do. He set about 
doing it. The policemen of the city he liked. The 
system that directed them was bad. Roosevelt said, 
''There are no better men anywhere than the men of 
the New York police force ; and when they go bad it is 
because the system is wrong, and because they are not 
given the chance to do the good work they can do and 
would rather do." He set about to change this evil 
system. Partisan politics and places for ward hench- 
men were not viewed with favor. The system of sell- 



16 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

ing to the best bidder places on the force was vigor- 
ously denounced and destroyed. Again he declared, 
"We pay not the slightest attention to a man's politics, 
or creed, or where he was born, so long as he is a good 
American citizen." This declaration is in complete 
harmony with the loftiest ideals of our Republic. 

As head of the Police Department, young Roosevelt 
made his own study of conditions. Night after night 
he walked the streets, visited the resort places of the 
rougher elements of the city's complex population, and 
saw for himself just what conditions were and what 
treatment was necessary to correct the evils and crime 
of the community. On one of these journeys he met a 
young Jew, named Raphael, who had won renown in 
the rescue of women and children from a burning 
building. Roosevelt urged Raphael to take the exami- 
nation for a place on the police force. The young man 
did so, was successful, and became a policeman of un- 
usual ability. Roosevelt says of him, *'He and his 
family have been close friends of mine ever since." 

In his heroic work to make our greatest city the best 
governed city, Roosevelt was signally fortunate to 
have as his friend and supporter Jacob Riis, who did 
more than any other man of his time to clean up the 
slums of the great city. His book How the Other Half 
Lives was an inspiring call to service. When Theo- 
dore Roosevelt read it he called at Mr. Riis's office 
but finding him out left a card on which he wrote, **I 
have read your book. I have come down to help." 
These great-hearted men became lifelong allies in pub- 
lic service. In 1901, in the White House, President 
Roosevelt told the writer that in" case the United States 
purchased the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) 
during his administration, he intended to make Jacob 
Riis governor of them. 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 17 

When Roosevelt endeavored to find the records of 
policemen who might deserve reward for unusual 
bravery, honesty, or capacity, it was found that no rec- 
ord of individual policemen was kept. No one knew, 
apparently no one cared, what the policemen did. The 
Commissioner was shocked to find that a rule of the 
Department provided that the officer who spoiled his 
uniform in rescuing man, woman or child from the 
river must get a new one at his own expense. It took 
Theodore Roosevelt not many minutes to blot out this 
disgraceful rule and to establish the principle that un- 
usual service of a high order should have proper recog- 
nition. In his two years as Commissioner, over one 
hundred men were singled out for special mention and 
reward because of some act of heroism. 

A certain fine old policeman, a veteran of the Civil 
War, one day saved a woman from drowning. Roose- 
velt sent for the man. He came, timid and fearful, for 
he had never been summoned before the Commissioner 
and had never been promoted. In twenty-two years 
on the force he had saved more than twenty-five per- 
sons from drowning and had rescued many from burn- 
ing buildings. No one in New York noted his heroic 
work, though Congress had twice given him medals 
for distinguished gallantry in saving life. Other 
medals came to him. The one thing he could not get 
was a promotion. He had no political backing. When 
Roosevelt learned all this he was quick to render jus- 
tice to a worthy man, and *'It may be worth mention- 
ing," says Roosevelt, ''that he kept on saving life after 
he was given his sergeantcy." 

The young reformer's greatest struggle was against 
the illegally operated saloons. The law forbade the 
sale of liquor on Sunday. But somebody ''high up" in 
politics had issued orders to allow certain saloons to 



18 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

sell liquor openly on Sunday. Doubtless these saloons 
were enjoying special favors and paid dearly to the 
blackmailers who defied the law and corrupted the 
police force. Roosevelt ordered these saloons to close. 
The ''personal liberty" crowd began to yell. Certain 
sordid newspapers set up a great cry. The owners of 
the favored saloons ran to those ''higher up." A storm 
had set in. The saloons were closed and they remain- 
ed closed until a judge friendly to the liquor interests 
ruled that drink could be sold with a "meal." At once 
they resumed operations, selling a pretzel as a "meal" 
and with it all the drink desired. But blackmail and 
political "higher-ups" had had a lesson. A moral vic- 
tory was won. The country was learning bit by bit to 
move toward national prohibition. 

KOOSEVELT AND THE ROUGH RIDERS 

In 1897 President McKinley called Theodore Roose- 
velt to Washington as Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy. He had served in this capacity for one year 
when the Cuban situation led to war with Spain. 

The country was wholly unprepared for war. 
Roosevelt declared that he believed America would al- 
ways be unready for war. So much has been said 
about Roosevelt being a fighting man, a lover of strife, 
a believer in war, that it is well to know from his own 
pen just what he did believe. He says, "I abhor unjust 
war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at 
the expense of the weak, whether among nations or in- 
dividuals. I abhor violence and bloodshed. I believe 
that war should never be resorted to when, or so long 
as, it is honorably possible to avoid it. I respect all 
men and women who from high motives and with san- 
ity and self-respect do all they can to avert war. I ad- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 19 

vocate preparation for war in order to avert war ; and 
I should never advocate war unless it were the only al- 
ternative to dishonor." 

He saw the horrors of the Spanish rule in Cuba, and 
he felt that it was no longer honorable for the United 
States to sit by and witness the atrocities in that is- 
land. He believed it would be better to end a ''peace" 
of continuous murder by a ''war" which stopped the 
murder and brought real peace. "Our own direct in- 
terests were great, because of the Cuban tobacco and 
sugar, and especially because of Cuba's relation to the 
projected Isthmian Canal. But even greater were our 
interests from the standpoint of humanity. Cuba was 
at our very doors. It was a dreadful thing to sit 
supinely and watch her death agony. It was our duty, 
even more from the standpoint of national honor than 
from the standpoint of national interests, to stop the 
devastation and destruction." 

This is why Roosevelt favored war with Spain and 
why he volunteered in the service. While he was As- 
sistant Secretary of the Navy, the Maine was blown up 
in Havana harbor. War became inevitable. In the 
absence of the Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt on 
February 25, 1898, cabled the American squadrons in 
Asiatic, European and South American waters, to 
rendezvous at certain convenient points, where, should 
war break out, they would be most available. 

When war was finally declared Roosevelt deter- 
mined to go to the front. "I had very deeply felt," 
said he, "that it was our duty to free Cuba, and I had 
publicly expressed this feeling ; and when a man takes 
such a position, he ought to be willing to make his 
words good by his deeds, unless there is some very 
strong reason to the contrary. He should pay with his 
body." 



20 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 



Secretary of War Alger asked Roosevelt to become 
Colonel of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry. 
But Roosevelt urged Leonard Wood for that place and 
requested that he himself be made second in command. 
This request v^as granted. The regiment was soon 
nicknamed both by the public and by the other units 
of the army the Rough Riders. It was made up of 
first-class young men of the East, many of them grad- 
uates of America's great colleges, and of fine, daring, 
dauntless men from the West and Southwest. A 
number of them were men with whom Roosevelt had 
fellowshipped far out on the plains and deep in the 
mountain fastnesses of the then remote West. 

The regiment arrived in Cuoa June 22, 1898, having 
regretfully left their horses in the United States. 
Within a few days they distinguished themselves at 
Las Guasimas. Wood was then made brigadier gen- 
eral and Roosevelt succeeded him as colonel. 




Roosevelt's Chimney Butte Ranch House 

This now stands on the grounds of the North Dakota State Capitol at 
Bismarck. It is often spoken of as the "Maltese Cross Ranch House" from 
the cattle brand used on the ranch. The Elkhorn Ranch House, built 
later, was larger and more comfortable. 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 21 

The Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, under Roose- 
velt's leadership, rendered valiant service and helped 
win the first important land battle of the war. Soon 
thereafter Santiago surrendered and the war came to 
a speedy end. The Rough Riders were disbanded and 
Roosevelt was called to other public service. It was 
not a great war but as Roosevelt said, in addressing 
veterans of the Civil War, *lt wasn't much of a war, 
but it was all the v/ar we had." 

We are told that in the final fighting at San Juan, 
when a Spanish trench was rushed and captured, Jack 
Greenv/ay, one of the gallant Rough Riders, captured 
a Spaniard. Later in the day Colonel Roosevelt found 
Jack leading his prisoner around with a string. Roose- 
velt directed Greenway to turn his prisoner over to a 
man who had two or three other prisoners, so that 
they might all be taken to the rear. Jack looked much 
aggrieved and said, "Why, Colonel, can't I keep him 
for myself?" Jack really regarded his captive as a 
trophy of the chase and wanted to retain him as his 
body servant. 

Among his Western volunteers was a former cow- 
puncher, round-up cook and a dead shot. On the 
transport this man refused to obey an officer of the 
transport. When the officer told him to consider him- 
self under arrest, the man offered to fight the officer 
for a trifling consideration. For this he was court- 
martialed and sentenced to a year's imprisonment at 
hard labor and a dishonorable discharge. The major- 
general of the division approved the sentence. Upon 
his arrival in Cuba, this prisoner came to Colonel 
Roosevelt and said, "Colonel, they say you're going to 
leave me with the baggage when the fight is on. Col- 
onel, if you do that I will never show my face in Ari- 
zona again. Colonel, if you will let me go to the front. 



22 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

I promise I will obey anyone you say ; anyone you say, 
Colonel." To which appeal Roosevelt replied, "Shields, 
there is no one in the regiment more entitled to be shot 
than you are, and you shall go to the front." The poor 
fellow was so grateful he said over and over again, 
**0h, I'll never forget this, Colonel, never." And he 
never did. When the men were in distress from lack 
of food. Shields would in some way manage to secure 
flour and sugar, cook a doughnut and bring it to the 
Colonel. Shields behaved well in the fights and at the 
end Roosevelt remitted his sentence, although, as he 
confesses, he had not the slightest power to do so. 
When the time came for mustering out, the officer in 
charge asked Colonel Roosevelt where the prisoner 
was. "What prisoner?" he asked. The regular of- 
ficer said, "The prisoner, the man who was sentenced 
to a year's imprisonment with hard labor and dishon- 
orable discharge." Roosevelt replied, "Oh ! I pardoned 
him." To this the regular officer responded, "I beg 
your pardon; you did what?" This question made the 
Colonel grasp the fact that he had exceeded his author- 
ity, but he answered, "Well, I did pardon him, any- 
how, and he has gone with the rest." The mustering- 
out officer sank back in his chair and said, "He was 
sentenced by a court martial, and the sentence was ap- 
proved by the major-general commanding the division. 
You were a lietuenant-colonel, and you pardoned him. 
Well, it was nervy, that's all I'll say." 

Because the United States was unprepared for war 
and had not developed proper agencies to care for the 
army in the field, diseases common to the tropics broke 
out among the men in the army around Santiago, 
Cuba. Malaria, the most common of these diseases, 
attacked the army so severely that the situation be- 
came critical. Roosevelt was one of many who real- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 23 

ized that something startling must be done to arouse 
official Washington, appeals through military channels 
having been without effect. He therefore wrote a pro- 
test which was handed to the newspaper correspond- 
ents by General Shatter. In it he appealed for the 
withdrawal of the troops to some healthful training 
ground where they could be put in shape for the fall 
campaign. This statement of itself might not have 
had the desired effect. But it was at once reinforced 
by a "round robin" letter signed by a number of offi- 
cers, from generals down. The ''round robin" gained 
its name from the fact that the signatures were placed 
in a circle, in order to relieve any one officer from ap- 
pearing to be more responsible than the others for this 
breach of army regulations. Roosevelt's courage in 
the matter appealed to the popular mind, and wide- 
spread indignation forced the War Department to act. 
Arrangements were made for the troops to be returned 
immediately to this country. About this time peace 
negotiations were opened, so that the army's return 
was permanent instead of temporary. 

To the round-robin incident there is a sequel. Offi- 
cial Washington was, of course, much disturbed that 
subordinate officers should address the public directly 
concerning a matter of official policy. Naturally, they 
waited an occasion to discipline the "offenders." Roose- 
velt was regarded as one, if not the leading, offender. 
The occasion came after the surrender of Santiago. 
Colonel Roosevelt wrote Secretary Alger begging that 
the Rough Riders be transferred to the campaign in 
Porto Rico. In this letter the Colonel extolled his own 
troops and in a burst of enthusiasm declared that his 
regiment was worth "three of the National Guard regi- 
ments, armed with their archaic black powder rifles." 
Greatly irritated. Secretary Alger telegraphed and 



24 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

made public a message of censure for what he honestly 
but mistakenly thought was a reflection upon the sol- 
diers of the National Guard. 

The incident closed happily for the Secretary and 
for the Colonel. In August, 1898, when the Rough 
Riders landed at Montauk Point, Long Island, an 
army officer handed Colonel Roosevelt a sealed letter 
in which Secretary Alger said : 

"Dear Colonel Roosevelt : 

**You have been a most gallant officer and in the bat- 
tle before Santiago showed superb soldierly qualities. 
I would rather add to, than detract from, the honors 
you have so fairly won, and I wish you all good things. 
In a moment of aggravation under great stress of feel- 
ing, first because I thought you spoke in a disparaging 
manner of the volunteers (probably without intent, but 
because of your great enthusiasm for your own men) 
and second, that I believed your published letter would 
embarrass the Department I sent you a telegram 
which, with an extract from a private letter of yours, 
I gave to the press. I would gladly recall both if I 
could, but unable to do that I write you this letter 
which I hope you will receive in the same friendly 
spirit in which I send it. Come and see me at an early 
day. No one will welcome you more heartily than I. 

"Russell A. Alger.'' 

This manly letter was received in a manly way and 
when Roosevelt was President and Secretary Alger 
was in the Senate they were stanch friends, working 
hand in hand for the common good. 

Upon his arrival in this country, Roosevelt was met 
by a group of friends and also by a delegation of poli- 
ticians. Both groups wanted him to become the Re- 
publican candidate for governor of New York. His 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 25 

friends really wanted him to have the office. The polit- 
ical bosses did not want him. They found they could 
not use him. They knew, however, that to win they 
must put up an unusually fine candidate. The political 
group wanted to know, of course, what Roosevelt 
would do for them or to them were he to become gover- 
nor. They were not long in doubt. Roosevelt said 
he would like to be nominated, would conduct a vigor- 
ous campaign and would not make war upon Thomas 
C. Piatt, head of the state party organization, or upon 
anybody else, if he could be governor of the state and 
not a factional leader. He also said that he would in- 
sist upon direct personal relations with everybody, 
that he would hear Mr. Piatt and all others in any mat- 
ter of appointment or policy, only reserving to himself 
the right to "act finally as my own judgment and con- 
science dictated and administer the state government 
as I thought it ought to be administered." 

This was plain talk. It did not please the politi- 
cians, but they were helpless, and Roosevelt, after a 
hard campaign, was by a small majority elected gov- 
ernor of New York. 

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

His term began January 1, 1899. He was now forty 
years of age, and held what many regard as the second 
most important executive place in the nation. His 
career at Albany was marked by many notable acts, 
and especially by an increase in the people's power and 
a decrease in the power of the ''bosses." 

Mr. Piatt set about to select officials for the gover- 
nor's cabinet. Roosevelt refused absolutely to allow 
this. He determined to name his own cabinet. Mr. 
Piatt yielded and Roosevelt won. In the case of the 



26 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

insurance commissioner, Governor Roosevelt, even 
v^hen told point-blank that a refusal to reappoint the 
holder of the office meant political ruin, refused to 
yield and the appointment of a new man of the gover- 
nor's choosing was made. 

When he proposed that service corporations should 
be taxed upon the value of the privileges they enjoy- 
ed, a great struggle arose. These corporations had, by 
fair or unfair means, secured special favors from the 
holders of state offices. This was fundamentally op- 
posed to the new governor's ideals. He admitted that 
men of capacity, in charge of great industries, should 
be well paid for their unusual ability. "But while I 
freely admit all this, it yet remains true that a cor- 
poration which derives its powers from the state 
should pay the state a just percentage of its earnings 
as a return for the privileges it enjoys." The gover- 
nor's message proposing to accomplish this just end 
was sent to the Assembly. The speaker refused to 
have it read. Someone tore it up. This was not only 
a misdemeanor, it was a political blunder. The politi- 
cians ran to cover. The bill was reported favorably 
and passed. Governor Roosevelt had won a notable 
victory, for on appeal the law was finally confirmed as 
constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United 
States. 

He secured the passage of many humane laws. The 
Civil Service Law, repealed in the term of his prede- 
cessor, he had re-enacted. He had the number of fac- 
tory inspectors increased in order to insure safety and 
decency for people at work. Laws were also passed to 
correct tenement conditions, to regulate sweat-shops, 
to make wages conform to hours of labor, to compel 
railroads to equip freight trains with air brakes, to 
regulate the working hours of women, to protect work- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 27 

ers from dangerous machinery, and to provide seiats 
for waitresses in restaurants and hotels. He also 
worked diligently for an employers' liability law, but 
did not succeed in having such a measure passed. 

Roosevelt really wanted to be re-elected governor. 
He knew there was yet much to do to make his state a 
better place in which to live and to rear a family. Al- 
though this was not to be, he left a great legacy at 
Albany. Jacob Riis says that after that, when a meas- 
ure came up in the Assembly, men did not ask, "What 
is it worth to me? How is it going to help the party?" 
but they asked only, "Is it right?" "That," says Riis, 
"is Roosevelt's legacy to Albany. And it was worth 
his coming and going to have that." 

VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT 

When the Republican National Convention met in 
1900 at Philadelphia, William McKinley was renomi- 
nated for the Presidency. He did not want the office. 
He was willing and anxious to retire. He so informed 
the writer the week before his re-election. Theodore 
Roosevelt was nominated for the Vice Presidency, and 
he did not want that office. He wrote to Senator Piatt, 

"I should like to be governor for another term 

But as Vice President I don't see there is anything I 
can do. I should simply be a presiding officer, and that 
I should find a bore." Thus two men were chosen to 
two great offices that neither desired. 

Within six months of their taking office, the Presi- 
dent was assassinated at Buffalo, and Theodore Roose- 
velt became President on September 14, 1901. He an- 
nounced his desire to continue the wise policies of his 
predecessor, and retained the McKinley cabinet. 

He began at once to put force and meaning into the 
National Civil Service Law. He consulted the Con- 



28 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

gressmen in making appointments but insisted in 
every case that those chosen possess fitness, capacity 
and efficiency. He set up a new standard of public 
service and aroused the public conscience, thus 
strengthening the nation's moral purpose. It was 
said of him that ''While others are talking and carp- 
ing, Mr. Roosevelt is carrying on in tlie White House a 
persistent and never-ending moral struggle with 
every powerful, selfish and exploiting interest in the 
country." This the people came to know. They ap- 
proved and v^ath a tremendous vote gave him a second 
term as President. 

The trust problem arose. Big business wanted to be 
let alone. Over against this was the cry, "Smash the 
trusts." The outlook was, indeed, not hopeful. Any 
action for or against the great and growing trusts was 
sure to arouse some criticism. Roosevelt was not slow 
to declare his views. In his first message to Congress 
he pointed out that the great captains of industry, in 
creating these so-called trusts, had done the country 
much good. On the other hand, the trusts had done 
harm because no one seemed to have power to compel 
them to behave. He insisted that the nation should 
assume powers of supervision and regulation over all 
corporations doing rnterstate business. 

Congress had passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, 
but it was not believed that it had the power to prevent 
the formation of large trusts. However, the decision 
of the Supreme Court in the famous Northern Securi- 
ties Company case gave new hope to the country. The 
proposed combination of practically all the great rail- 
way systems in the Northwest was held to be illegal 
and was directed to dissolve. 

This decision of the Supreme Court was all the more 
remarkable because it was in direct conflict with a 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 29 

former decision of the court in the great Sugar Trust 
case, known generally as the Knight case. Thus the 
government was confirmed in its power to deal with 
industrial monopoly and to suppress it and to control 
and regulate combinations of interests when such com- 
binations were shown to work injustice to the people. 
Roosevelt was not opposed to corporations, nor to com- 
binations of corporations, called trusts, but he insisted 
that they should be under thoroughgoing control by 
the federal government. Following this legal victory 
for the people, the President directed that suit be 
brought against the American Tobacco Company and 
the Standard Oil Company. That the government 
should have the power to dissolve any monopoly was 
not, in Roosevelt's opinion, wise. The Anti-Trust Law 
struck at all big business, good and bad alike, and 
while it had checked much bad big business it was a 
constant threat against decent big business. 

The "Big Stick'' And The "Square Deal" 

The President urged such modifications of the Anti- 
Trust Law as would give the government thorough 
and complete control over all big business combina- 
tions engaged in interstate industry. It is clear that 
he did this not at all to prevent great combinations of 
industry. The decision of the Supreme Court already 
settled that. But he wished to save decent big busi- 
ness from constant menace, for he believed in honest 
business activities, great and small alike. 

He was opposed by the foolish radicals, whose slo- 
gan was "Down with the trusts," and also by the great 
privileged interests themselves, who did not want the 
government, by any regulatory control, to interfere 
with their activities. However, the President did suc- 
ceed in having a law passed creating a Department of 



30 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

Commerce and Labor and establishing a Bureau 
of Corporations. Roosevelt's position as regards busi- 
ness, in his use of what is usually called the "big stick," 
is best set forth by himself: "Where a company is 
found seeking its profits through serving the commu- 
nity by stimulating production, lowering prices or im- 
proving service, while scrupulously respecting the 
rights of others (including its rivals, its employees, its 
customers, and the general public) and strictly obey- 
ing the law, then no matter how large its capital or 
how great the volume of its business it would be en- 
couraged to still more abundant production, or better 
service, by the fullest protection that the government 
could afford it. On the other hand, if a corporation 
were found seeking profit through injury or oppres- 
sion of the community, by restricting production 
through trick or device, by plot or conspiracy against 
competitors, or by oppression of wage-workers, and 
then extorting high prices for the commodity it had 
made artificially scarce, it would be prevented from 
again organizing if its nefarious purpose could be dis- 
covered in time, or pursued and suppressed by all the 
power of the government whenever found in actual 
operation. This would put a stop to abuses of big cor- 
porations and small corporations alike; it would draw 
the line on conduct and not on size; it would destroy 
monopoly, and make the biggest business man in the 
country conform squarely to the principles laid down 
by the American people, while at the same time giving 
fair play to the little man and certainty of knowledge 
as to what was wrong and what was right both to big 
man and little man." 

Vigorous as he was with the "big stick" in dealing 
with the corporations when they did wrong, the Presi- 
dent was equally courageous in proclaiming the 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 31 

"square deal" for the same corporations or others 
when they did what was right. 

7n the case of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company 
he was criticized for giving his aid to a combination of 
corporations because he was brave enough to demand 
a ''square deal" when it was not popular so to do. In 
1907 there were severe business disturbances, culmin- 
ating in a panic which arose in New York and became 
nation-wide. The word "panic" means fear, and to 
stop a panic it is necessary to restore confidence. In 
this crisis two prominent business men, Henry C. 
Frick and E. H. Gary, called upon the President and 
informed him that great business interests would be 
certain to fail if help were not given. They also ex- 
plained that if the United States Steel Corporation 
could take over the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company 
and put the good credit of the former back of the poor 
credit of the latter the panic could be stopped. The 
President saw that these men were right, that they 
had no selfish purpose in the matter, and he at once ap- 
proved the consolidation. The panic was stopped and 
business returned to its normal activities. However, 
Roosevelt was severely censured by press and people. 
They thought he had surrendered to big business 
when, as a matter of fact, he had only given a square 
deal to the large corporations and had done the country 
a great srevice. 

He defended his action in this case by declaring, "If 
I were on a sailboat, I should not ordinarily meddle 
with any of the gear; but if a sudden squall struck us, 
and the main sheet jammed, so that the boat threaten- 
ed to capsize, I would unhesitatingly cut the main 
sheet, even though I were sure that the owner, no mat- 
ter how grateful to me at the moment for having saved 
his life, would a few weeks later, when he had for- 



32 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

gotten his danger and his fear, decide to sue me for the 
value of the cut rope. But I would feel a hearty con- 
tempt for the owner who so acted." 

The President determined to break up, also, the 
vicious system of rebates. A rebate was a return by 
carrying companies to favored shippers of a part of 
the freight charged. In this w^ay some shippers could 
readily undersell and destroy their less favored com- 
petitors. The Hepburn Act of 1906 gave the govern- 
ment the power to fix maximum rates for the carrying 
of freight in interstate commerce. This put an end to 
a growing evil and gave all shippers of commodities 
equal justice. It was one of many efforts by the Presi- 
dent to secure the adoption of the square deal in busi- 
ness. 

"I found," said he, *'when I became President that 
the power of the national government over the rail- 
ways was either not exercised at all or exercised with 
utter inefficiency. The law against rebates was a dead 
letter. All the unscrupulous railway men had been al- 
lowed to violate it with impunity ; and because of this 
the scrupulous and decent railway men had been 
forced to violate it themselves under penalty of being 
beaten by their less scrupulous rivals. It was not the 
fault of these decent railway men. It was the fault 
of the government." 

This square deal in business was clearly set forth in 
an address in 1907 in which the President declared, 
"I want you to understand that I will stand just as 
straight for the rights of the honest man who wins his 
fortune by honest methods as I will stand against the 
dishonest man who wins a fortune by dishonest meth- 
ods." And again he declared, ''Let us remember that 
justice can never be justice unless it is equal. Do jus- 
tice to the rich man and exact justice from him; do 



■ TOliy OF ROOSEVELT 



33 



JL.stice to the poor man and exact justice from him — 
justice to the capitalist and justice to the wage- 
worker." Thus he set up justice, the majesty of law, 
above the rights or privileges of individuals. It was 
a definite defiance of those who, under one guise or an- 
other, from time to time prattle about "personal lib- 
ertj^'* and who at heart mean personal license. The 
law is supreme and all must obey it. Those who refuse 
to obey the law have no right to demand the protection 
of the law. 

In like manner he declared for a square deal for 




@ Underwood & Underwood 

Roosevelt on a Visit to Yosemite National Park 



34 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

labor. At the Sorbonne in Paris, when returning from 
his famous African hunting expedition in 1910, he 
said, "In every civilized society property rights must 
be carefully safeguarded. Ordinarily and in the great 
majority of cases, human rights and property rights 
are in the long run identical; but when it clearly ap- 
pears that there is a real conflict between them, human 
rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs 
to man and not man to property." He also placed the 
force of his influence against all violations of law by 
labor or by capital. "Remember, please, that he who 
counsels violence does the cause of labor the poorest 
service. Also, he loses his case. Understand distinct- 
ly that order will be kept." 

It was this truly American note that won for him 
renown in settling the great coal strike of 1902. Time 
after time, as the circumstances required, he held 
steadily to the ideal of equal justice to all, which ideal 
is perhaps best set forth in his declaration, "While I 
am President the doors shall swing open as easily to 
the wage-worker as to the head of a big corporation — 
and no easier!" He did not intend to have anyone as^ 
sume that he would "take sides." 

VTcONSERVATION AND PEACEMAKING 
Roosevelt early sensed the nation's need to con- 
serve its vast natural resources and to reclaim arid 
places. He saw clearly that we of this generation have 
a duty to those coming after us. "The forest and 
water problems are perhaps the most vital internal 
questions of the United States." Under the spur of 
his leadership laws were enacted that led to the build- 
ing of the great Shoshone Dam in Wyoming. It is 310 
feet high. The mountains of Colorado were tunneled 
and the waters of the Gunnison River were carried six 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 35 

miles to make fertile the vast wastes of the Uncom- 
pahgre Valley. The great Roosevelt Dam in Arizona 
impounded the waters of the Salt River and was made 
to water 750,000 acres of soil. By 1915 this wise policy 
had made arable 1,250,000 acres of waste lands, and 
increased the value of our farm products yearly by 
more than $18,000,000. 

When Roosevelt became President the so-called for- 
est preserves were the prey of greedy men. There 
was no efficient supervision. Fire annually wrought 
untold damage. Roosevelt saw that the annual growth 
of timber was only one third of the annual timber cut. 
He also saw that in less than a generation the nation 
would have a lumber famine. The natural supplies of 
gas, oil, coal and forage plants also were rapidly pass- 
ing away. Something had to be done if the natural 
wealth of the country were to remain as a great heri- 
tage for following generations. He transferred the 
Forestry Service to the Department of Agriculture 
and added to the preserves of the country until the 
people held forever 194,000,000 acres of public land. 

On June 8, 1905, President Roosevelt asked Russia 
and Japan, then at war, ''not only for their own sakes, 
but in the interest of the whole civilized world, to open 
direct negotiations for peace with each other." The 
suggestion was accepted. The representatives of the 
two great powers met at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
and concluded an honorable treaty. For his part in 
this settlement, the President was acclaimed a great 
peacemaker and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 
for that year. With part of the $40,000 which he re- 
ceived^ he endowed the Foundation for the Promotion 
of International Peace, and $10,000 of it he gave in 
1915 toward the work of the Inter-church Committee 
on Unemployment. 



36 the story of roosevelt 

Building the Panama Canal 

Roosevelt was responsible for the building of the 
Panama Canal. This great achievement was carried 
to a successful end in spite of much criticism. His ac- 
tion in 1903 in recognizing Panama as a republic, se- 
curing rights from the new nation, and pushing the 
work of construction, is still a subject of discussion. 
Work was begun May 4, 1904, and the canal was open- 
ed August 15, 1914. The success of the undertaking 
was largely due to the two men whom Roosevelt chose 
to head the engineering and sanitary work. Colonel 
(later Major General) George W. Goethals and Colonel 
(later Major General) William C. Gorgas. For the 
most part, criticism of Roosevelt in connection with 
the canal long ago was transformed into admiration. 
Most people are willing to accept the plain fact that 
the canal is open, thereby greatly improving inter- 
oceanic travel. The citizens of the Canal Zone have 
good health where once disease was prevalent, and the 
United States is provided with a greatly increased na- 
tional defense. 

Ever since Balboa crossed the Isthmus and gazed 
upon the Pacific Ocean there has been talk of building 
a canal to shorten the water journey to the western 
coast of North America, and to save Europeans time 
and distance in the westward voyage to the Orient. 
The question of our right to build the canal upon terri- 
tory originally belonging to Colombia hinged upon the 
meaning and application of the Monroe Doctrine, 
which lays down the rule that the Western Hemi- 
sphere is not to be treated as subject to settlement and 
occupation by Old World powers. This doctrine is, of 
course, not international law, but it is, as Roosevelt de- 
clared, **a cardinal principle of our foreign policy.'^ 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 37 

If, then, upon request, the United States would come to 
the assistance of any country in North or South Amer- 
ica that was threatened by any Old World power, it is 
clear that the United States itself should at no time 
do what it denied others. By this Monroe Doc- 
trine we not only guaranteed these sister countries of 
America against encroachments by foreign powers but 
we, in all fairness, guaranteed them^ against any act 
of settlement or occupation by ourselves. 

Under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, signed soon after 
Roosevelt became President, and by agreement with 
the French Panama Company that had failed to build, 
under a concession, the canal, the United States was 
free, so far as Europe was concerned, to undertake 
the building of a canal. There remained, then, only 
the need to obtain rights from the country whose terri- 
tory it would cross. The location of the canal became 
an important matter. Nicaragua was most anxious to 
have the canal built through its territory, north of 
Panama. As long as a doubt existed as to the location, 
Colombia, in whose territory the Isthmus of Panama 
was located, also showed friendly concern and prom- 
ised hearty co-operation. Her delegates at the Pan- 
American Congress in Mexico City joined unanimously 
in requesting the United States to build the canal. 

The board of experts sent to examine the two routes 
reported that the Isthmian route was better than the 
Nicaraguan. Since 1846 the United States had had a 
treaty with the power in control of the Isthmus of 
Panama guaranteeing to the United States free and 
open way across the Isthmus by any mode of transpor- 
tation that might be constructed. In return for this 
concession our government guaranteed the complete 
neutrality of the Isthmus with a view to the preserva- 
tion of free transit. 



38 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

Colombia was in constant revolution. Her Congress 
and her President were determined to delay action on 
the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty and in this way attempt 
to secure the $40,000,000 the United States agreed to 
pay the French Panama Company for its property and 
its concession on the Isthmus. On October 16, 1903, 
the President was advised that a revolution was form- 
ing in Panama against the Colombian government. 
On November 3 this revolution occurred. By unani- 
mous action of the people of Panama and without the 
firing of a shot the State of Panama became an inde- 
pendent republic. With this new republic Roosevelt 
negotiated the acquisition by the United States of the 
Canal Zone, thus making the way clear to build the 
canal. Colombia resented our dealing with the new 
republic and the subject became one of bitter contro- 
versy in our own country. The President was charged 
with having "usurped authority." However, his Sec- 
retary of State, John Hay, declared, ".The action of the 
President in the Panama matter is not only in the 
strictest accordance with the principles of justice and 
equity, and in line with all the best precedents of our 
public policy, but it was the only course he could have 
taken in compliance with our treaty rights and obli- 
gations." 

It has been charged that the President encouraged, 
actually helped, plan the revolution in Panama. The 
best answer to this falsehood is his own declaration, 
"No one connected with the American government had 
any part in preparing, inciting, or encouraging the 
revolution, and except for the reports of our military 
and naval officers, which I forwarded to Congress, no 
on^ connected with the government had any previous 
knowledge concerning the revolution." Could any 
denial be more definite or sweeping than this? 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 39 

The President also says, "The canal would not have 
been built at all save for the action I took. If men 
choose to say that it would have been better not to 
build it than to build it as the result of such action, 
their position, although foolish, is compatible with be- 
lief in their wrong-headed sincerity. But it is hypoc- 
risy, alike odious and contemptible, for any man to 
say both that we ought to have built the canal and that 
we ought not to have acted in the way we did.'* 

However, the controversy over our treatment of Co- 
lombia, a sister republic, continued to challenge public 
attention. Finally, in 1922, with the approval of Presi- 
dent Harding, the United States paid Colombia $25,- 
000,000 in full payment of any and all claims she may 
have had in the Panama Canal case. 

Having served as President nearly the entire term 
for which McKinley had been elected, Roosevelt was 
made the Republican candidate for the office in 1904, 
practically without opposition, and was elected by a 
popular majority of over 2,500,000, the largest on 
record. His opponent was Judge Alton B. Parker of 
New York. At the time of the election Roosevelt de- 
clared that under no circumstances would he be a 
candidate for another term. This was generally un- 
derstood to mean that he would never again be a 
candidate; but subsequently, in connection with the 
1912 campaign, he said he had meant that he would 
not be a candidate again to succeed himself. At all 
events, in 1908 he used his influence successfully to 
secure the nomination and election of William How- 
ard Taft. Mr. Taft came into office with a record of 
wide experience. He had been a federal judge. Civil 
Governor of the Philippines and, while Secretary of 
War in Roosevelt's cabinet, a close friend and confidant 
of the President. 



40 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

IlUNTER, EDITOR, AND '^BULL MOOSE" 

Less th::n a month cfter his successor took office, 
Roosevelt, with his son Kermit and others, sailed for 
East Africa on a scientific expedition, under the 
auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. Numerous 
valuable specimens of big game were taken by his 
prowess end brought back for the collection of the 
National Museum in Washington. Not the least suc- 
cessful feature of the trip was the Ex-President's re- 
turn through Europe, which was a triumphal journey 
of a kind experienced by 110 American since Grant. 
Roosevelt visited most of the great capitals and 
everywhere, by both rulers and populace, he was 
acclaimed. He delivered notable addresses at the 
Sorbonne, Paris, and other great universities, and 
astonished not only statesmen but philosophers, his- 
torians and naturalists with the depth and variety of 
his knowledge. 

In June, 1910, Roosevelt returned to his homeland 
rested, successful, popular as never before. His in- 
tention was to keep out of politics and live quietly, 
though by no means inactively. However, he came 
before the public in connection with criticism of the 
Washington administration and finally he became 
estranged from Taft who, he believed, had failed 
to carry out the reforms that both had been interest- 
ed in, and had failed to appoint to his cabinet cer- 
tain Roosevelt supporters. Taft claimed that he had 
never promised to appoint these men. Years later the 
two Ex-Presidents were reconciled and their old 
friendship was renewed. 

Deciding to utilize his energies in writing, Roose- 
velt accepted an offer to join the staff of The Outlook 
as contributing editor. But he was not allowed to re- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 41 

main at a desk, although he did write for The Outlook 
until 1914. There were tens of thousands of his 
admirers throughout the country who clamored 
for his return to the Presidency. These men, and 
women, were out of sympathy with the *'stand-pat'' 
element of the Republican Party. They would have 
been glad to reform the party from the inside, with 
Roosevelt as their standard-bearer, but when the Re- 
publican National Convention met in Chicago in 
June, 1912, it renominated Taft. Roosevelt had be- 
come a candidate for the nomination, at the solicita- 
tion of a number of governors of states who united 
in a letter of appeal that he do so, pledging their 
support. He knew that he had a fighting chance, 
and replied, "My hat is in the ring." The '*insur~ 
gent" element, when it found that it could not im- 
press its will on the convention, broke away and 
formed a new organization, the Progressive Party, 
and with tremendous enthusiasm nominated Roose- 
velt for President. This occurred in Chicago in 
August. The party took as its symbol the Bull 
Moose. (Roosevelt had told the reporters that he 
"felt as strong as a bull moose.") 

The campaign that followed, based upon an ap- 
peal for an administration that would make ^'social 
justice" a reality, was bitter almost without prece- 
dent. As a climax to the excitement, Roosevelt him- 
self, while speaking in Milwaukee, was shot by a 
crazy man. With a bullet in his chest, he insisted on 
finishing his speech before having the wound attend- 
ed to. This incident occurred in October, and pre- 
vented further speech-making by the candidate until 
just before the election. 

At the polls the Progressives made a gallant show- 
ing, with more than 4,000,000 votes — 700,000 more 



42 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

than the Republicans; but both were overwhelmed 
by the Democratic candidates, headed by Woodrow 
Wilson. The Progressive Party as an organization 
did not last long, but its influence continued to be 
felt. The former Bull Moose adherents gradually 
became identified again with one or the other of the 
long-established parties, chiefly the Republican, and 
exerted their insurgent or progressive efforts from 
within. To be sure, the Progressives again made 
Roosevelt their candidate for President in 1916, but 
after a month he declined the nomination and threw 
his influence to the side of the Republican candidate, 
Charles E. Hughes. 

Soon after the election in 1912, Roosevelt, always 
longing for the wilds, went on an extended hunting 
and exploring trip in Brazil. Before striking into 
the jungle, however, he visited several of the South 
American countries, where he had been invited to 
deliver a number of addresses. In 1914, with his 
party, which again included his son Kermit, he en- 
tered the Amazonian wilderness. As a result of his 
explorations, he discovered a hitherto unknown af- 
fluent of the Amazon, a river first called *The River 
of Doubt," but later named for its discoverer, Rio 
Teodoro (River Theodore). Although Roosevelt en- 
dured the extreme hardships of this adventure bet- 
ter than most of his party, and valiantly fought the 
tropical fever that attacked him, he was greatly 
weakened and his health permanently impaired by 
the experience. Thenceforth until his death he en- 
dured severe pain much of the time. 

Roosevelt, although he was a ''mighty hunter," 
did not brag about his exploits, and he had no use 
for others who did so. Nor did he believe in repre- 
senting animals as possessing qualities commonly 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 43 

considered distinctively human. Writers who did 
this he branded as ''nature fakers." It is of interest 
to note how Roosevelt regarded the wild animals, so 
many of which fell before his rifle: 

''I have shot only five kinds of animals which can 
fairly be called dangerous game — that is the lion, 
elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo in Africa and the 
grizzly bear in the Rockies. Taking into account 
not only my own personal experiences, but the ex- 
periences of many veterans, I regard all the four 
African animals, but especially the lion, elei5hant 
and buffalo, as much more dangerous than the griz- 
zly. As it happened, however, the*only narrow escape 
I personally ever had was from a grizzly, and in 
Africa the animal killed closest to me, as it was 
charging, was a rhinoceros — all of which goes to 
show that a man must not generalize too broadly 
from his own personal experiences. On the whole, 
I think the lion the most dangerous of all these five 
animals ; that is, I think that if fairly hunted there is 
a larger percentage of hunters killed or mauled for 
a given number of lions killed than for a given num- 
ber of any one of the other animals. Yet I person- 
ally had no difficulties with lions. I twice killed lions 
which were at bay and just starting to charge, and 
I killed a heavy-maned male while it was in full 
charge. But in each instance I had plenty of leeway, 
the animal being so far off that even if my bullet had 
not been fatal I should have had time for a couple 
more shots. The African buffalo is undoubtedly a 
dangerous beast, but it happened that the few that 
I shot did not charge. A bull elephant, a vicious 
rogue, which had been killing people in the native 
villages, did charge before being shot at. My son 
Kermit and I stopped it at forty yards. 



44 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

"Rhinoceroses are truculent, blustering beasts,, 
much the most stupid of all the dangerous game I 
know. Generally their attitude is one of mere stupid- 
ity and bluff. But on occasions they do charge wicked- 
ly, both when wounded and when entirely unprovoked. 
The first I ever shot I mortally wounded at a few 
rods* distance, and it charged with the utmost deter- 
mination, whereat I and my companion both fired, 
and more by good luck than anything else brought 
it to the ground just thirteen paces from where we 
stood. Another rhinoceros may or may not have 
been meaning to charge me; I have never been cer- 
tain which. It heard us and came at us through 
rather thick brush, snorting and tossing its head. I 
am by no means sure that it had fixedly hostile in- 
tentions, and indeed with my present experience I 
think it likely that if I had not fired it would have 
flinched at the last moment, and either retreated or 
gone by me. I stopped it with a couple of bullets 
and then followed it up and killed it. The skins of 
all these animals which I thus killed are in the Na- 
tional Museum at Washington. 

"But, as I said above, the only narrow escape I 
met with was not from one of these dangerous Afri- 
can animals, but from a grizzly bear. I had wound- 
ed the bear just at sunset, in a wood of lodge-pole 
pines, and, following him, I wounded him again, as 
he stood on the other side of a thicket. He then 
charged through the brush, coming with such speed 
and with such an irregular gait that, try as I would, 
I was not able to get the sight of my rifle on the 
brainpan, though I hit him very hard with both the 
remaining barrels of my magazine Winchester. It 
was in the days of black powder, and the smoke 
hung. After my last shot the first thing I saw was 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 46 

the bear's left paw as he struck at me, so close that 
I made a quick movement to one side. He was, how- 
ever, practically already dead, and after another 
jump, and while in the very act of trying to turn to 
come at me, he collapsed like a shot rabbit." 

CROWDED LAST YEARS 

Soon after Roosevelt's return from South America 
(May 18, 1914) the European War began. It was 
not long before he came to the conclusion that even- 
tually the United States would become involved. He 
pleaded and worked for American preparedness. 
His famous saying, ''Speak softly and carry a big 
stick," was once more to have its application to his 
own life. When a declaration of war came, as he 
had declared it would come, he asked to be allowed 
to take a volunteer division overseas for immediate 
service. The Administration did not approve this 
request. However, all four of his sons — Theodore, 
Kermit, Archibald and Quentin — ^went into the ser- 
vice and distinguished themselves. Quentin, an 
aviator, was killed in battle and is buried in France. 

About a year before his own death Roosevelt lay 
critically ill in a New York hospital. Blood poison- 
ing which he had brought back from South America 
with him had necessitated an operation, and for one 
night his life was despaired of. At this time he call- 
ed to him his sister, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, and 
whispered, "I am so glad that it is not one of my boys 
who is dying here, for they can die for their country." 

However, Roosevelt lived to work again for the 
ideals and purposes that were dearer to him than his 
life. He never spared himself. He had promised 
himself when a young man to "work up to the hilt" 
until he was sixty, and he had more than fulfilled that 



46 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

promise; but still he kept on. He delivered a num- 
ber of stirring war speeches, not only in New York 
but in other states. His last public message, an ad- 
dress on Americanism, he was unable to give in per- 
son. Only a few hours before his death, this thrilling 
plea for a cause that he had made peculiarly his own 
was read by another from the stage of the New York 
Hippodrome: 

*'I cannot be w^ith you, and so all I can do is to wish 
you God-speed. There must be no sagging back in 
the fight for Americanism merely because the war is 
over. There are plenty of persons who have already 
made the assertion that they believe the American 
people haver a short memory, and that they intend to 
revive all the foreign associations which most directly 
interfere with the complete Americanization of our 
people. 

**Our principle in this matter should be absolutely 
simple. , in the first place we should insist that if the 
immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an 
American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be 
treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for 
it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man 
because of creed, or birthplace, or origin."' 
) "But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in 
very fact an American, and nothing but an American. 
If he tries to keep segregated with men of his own 
origin and separated from the rest of America, then 
he isn't doing his part as an American, 
r 'There can be no divided allegiance here. Any 
man who says he is an American, but something else 
also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but 
one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red 
flag which symbolizes all wars against liberty and 
civilization just as much as it excludes any foreign 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 47 

flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have 
room for but one language here, and that is the Eng- 
lish language, for we intend to see that the crucible 
turns our people out as Americans, of American na- 
tionality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding 
house; land we have room for but one soul loyalty 
and that is a loyalty to the American people/^ 

Worn out in body but undaunted in spirit, Theo- 
dore Roosevelt passed away on January 5, 1919, at 
his beloved Oyster Bay home. In accordance with 
his own request he was buried in the little cemetery 
of the village. His death brought profound sorrow 
to the entire nation. Those who had been his ad- 
mirers and his opponents united in mourning his loss. 
William H. Taft declared, "The nation has lost the 
most commanding, the most original, the most inter- 
esting, the most brilliant personality in American 
public life since Lincoln." 

HIS IDEAL OF AMERICANISM 
Roosevelt put into American thought many ideals 
that are now exemplified in our public procedure. 
He touched life in more ways than any other Ameri- 
can of his time. He was a man of wide scholarship^ 
an authority on natural history, a fine historian, a 
great political leader, a lover of the out-of-doors, a 
devoted friend of all oppressed people, an admirable 
husband and father, and a defender of the power 
and dignity of the country he loved. For the United 
States of America he lived, and for it, in a very real 
sense, he gave his life. 

He was so intensely American that he had no 
patience with men who lived under the flag and were 
not loyal to the spirit of the country it typifies. In 
his heart ran steadily the clarion call, ''America^ 



48 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

lead on.'* "Patriotism/' he declared in the Atlantic 
Monthly for August, 1904, *'love of country and pride 
in the flag which symbolizes country are feelings 
which at present are very real and strong, and the 
man who lacks them is a useless creature, a mere en- 
cumbrance to the land." 

"You can't govern yourselves by sitting in your 
studies and thinking how good you are. You've got 
to fight all you know how, and you'll find a lot of 
able men willing to fight you. . . . 

"A man must go into practical politics in order to 
make his influence felt. Practical politics must not 
be construed to mean dirty politics. On the contrary, 
in the long run the politics of fraud and treachery 
and foulness is impractical politics, and the most 
practical of all politicians is the politician who is 
clean and decent and straight." 

In his writings and in his numerous public ad- 
dresses Theodore Roosevelt always proclaimed a 
sound morality and a lofty ideal of American citi- 
zenship. He was always more concerned with his 
message than with his language. He spoke and 
wrote in terms of such clarity that everyone could 
understand his meaning. The following quotations 
demonstrate his sturdy stand for the "square deal" 
and his unflinching love for his native land : 

"The first requisite of a good citizen in this repub- 
lic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull 
his own weight; that he shall not be a mere passen- 
ger, but shall do his share in the work that each gen- 
eration of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore, 
that in doing his work he shall show, not only the 
capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respect- 
ing regard for the rights of others." 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 49 

"Every great nation owes to the men whose lives 
have formed part of its greatness not merely the ma- 
terial effect of what they did, not merely the laws 
they placed upon the statute books or the victories 
they won over armed foes, but also the immense but 
indefinable moral influence produced by their words 
and deeds upon the national character. It would be 
difl[icult to exaggerate the material effects of the 
careers of Washington and of Lincoln upon the 
United States. Without Washington we should 
probably never have won our independence of the 
British crown, and we should almost certainly have 
failed to become a great nation, remaining instead 
a cluster of jangling little communities, drifting 
toward the type of government prevalent in Spanish 
America. Without Lincoln we might perhaps have 
failed to keep the political unity we had won; and 
even if, as is possible, we had kept it, both the strug- 
gle by which it was kept and the results of this 
struggle would have been so different that the effect 
upon our national history could not have failed to be 
profound. Yet the nation's debt to these men is not 
confined to what it owes them for its material well- 
being, incalculable though this debt is. Beyond the 
fact that we are an independent and united people, 
with half a continent as our heritage, lies the fact 
that every American is richer by the heritage of the 
noble deeds and noble words of Washington and of 
Lincoln. Each of us who reads the Gettysburg 
speech or the second inaugural address of the great- 
est American of the nineteenth century, or who 
studies the long campaigns and lofty statesmanship 
of that other American who was even greater, can- 
not but feel within him that lift toward things higher 



50 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

and nobler which can never be bestowed by the en- 
joyment of mere material prosperity.'* 

"No man works such incalculable woe to a free 
country as he who teaches young men that one of the 
paths to glory, renown, and temporal success lies 
along the line of armed resistance to the government, 
or its attempted overthrow." 

"Our nation is that one among all the nations of 
the earth which holds in its hands the fate of the 
coming years. We enjoy exceptional advantages 
and are menaced by exceptional dangers; and all 
signs indicate that we shall either fail greatly or 
succeed greatly. I firmly believe that we shall suc- 
ceed ; but we must not foolishly blink at the dangers 
by which we are threatened, for that is the way to 
fail. On the contrary, we must soberly set to work 
to find out all we can about the existence and extent 
of every evil, must acknowledge it to be such, and 
must then attack it with unyielding resolution. There 
are many such evils, and each must be fought after 
a separate fashion ; yet there is one quality which we 
must bring to the solution of every problem, — that 
is, an intense and fervid Americanism. We shall 
never be successful over the dangers that confront 
us; we shall never achieve true greatness, nor reach 
the lofty ideal which the founders and preservers of 
our mighty Federal Republic have set before us, un- 
less we are Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and 
purpose, keenly alive to the responsibility implied in 
the very name of American, and proud beyond meas- 
ure of the glorious privilege of bearing it." 

"It is an immense benefit to the European immi- 
grant to change him into an American citizen. To 
bear the name of American is to bear the most hon- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 



51 



ored of titles; and whoever does not so believe has 
no business to bear the name at all, and, if he comes 
from Europe, the sooner he goes back there the 
better." 

"The immigrant of to-day can learn much from the 
experience of the immigrants of the past, who came to 
America prior to the Revolutionary War. We were 
then already, what we are now, a people of mixed 
blood. Many of our most illustrious Revolutionary 
names were borne by men of Huguenot blood — Jay, 
Sevier, Marion, Laurens. But the Huguenots were, on 
the whole, the best immigrants we have ever received ; 




@ Underwood & Underwood 

President Roosevelt and His Family 

In the group from left to right, are: Kermit, Archibald, President Roose- 
velt, Ethel, Mrs. Roosevelt, Quentin, and Theodore, Jr. 



52 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

sooner than any other, and more completely, they be- 
came American in speech, conviction, and thought. 
The Hollanders took longer than the Huguenots to be- 
come completely assimilated; nevertheless they in the 
end became so, immensely to their own advantage. 
One of the leading Revolutionary generals, Schuyler, 
and one of the Presidents of the United States, Van 
Buren, were of Dutch blood ; but they rose to their po- 
sitions, the highest in the land, because they had be- 
come Americans and had ceased being Hollanders. If 
they had remained members of an alien body, cut off by 
their speech and customs and belief from the rest of 
the American community, Schuyler would have lived 
his life as a boorish, provincial squire, and Van Buren 
would have ended his days a small tavern-keeper. So 
it is with the Germans of Pennsylvania. Those of 
them who became Americanized have furnished to our 
history a multitude of honorable names, from the days 
of the Muhlenbergs onward; but those who did not 
become Americanized form to the present day an un- 
important body, of no significance in American exis- 
tence. So it is with the Irish, who gave to Revolution- 
ary annals such names as Carroll and Sullivan, and to 
the Civil War men like Sheridan — ^men who were 
Americans and nothing else : while the Irish who re- 
main such, and busy themselves solely with alien poli- 
tics, can have only an unhealthy influence upon Amer- 
ican life, and can never rise as do their compatriots 
who become straight-out Americans. Thus it has ever 
been with all people who have come hither, of what- 
ever stock or blood.'' 

"We cannot sit huddled within our own borders and 
avow ourselves merely an assemblage of well-to-do 
hucksters who care nothing for what happens beyond. 
Such a policy would defeat even its own ends; for as 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 53 

the nations grow to have ever voider and wider inter- 
ests and are brought into closer and closer contact, if 
we are to hold our own in the struggle for naval and 
commercial supremacy, we must build up our power 
within our own borders. We have but little room 
among our people for the timid, the irresolute and the 
idle ; and it is no less true that there is scant room in 
the world at large for the nation with mighty thews 
that dares not to be great." 

In his article in The Forum for July, 1894, in which 
he discusses the general law that great efficiency in 
public life is possible only to those of highest morality, 
Roosevelt concludes as follows: "The men who wish 
to work for decent politics must work practically, and 
yet must not swerve from their devotion to a higher 
ideal. They must actually do things, and not merely 
confine themselves to criticizing those who do them. 
They must work disinterestedly, and appeal to the dis- 
interested element in others, although they must also 
do work which will result in the material betterment 
of the community. They must act as Americans 
through and through, in spirit and hope and purpose, 
and while being disinterested, unselfish and generous 
in their dealings with others, they must also show that 
they possess the essential manly virtues of energy, of 
resolution and of indomitable personal courage." This 
is only another way of saying that to be useful one 
must be good ; to be very useful one must be very good, 
for morality is the basis of service. 

His famous phrase ''The strenuous life," was first 
used in his speech to the Hamilton Club of Chicago in 
1899. He said, ''I wish to preach, not the doctrine of 
ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the 
life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach 
that highest form of success which comes, not to the 



54 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who 
does not shrink from danger, from hardships, or from 
bitter toil, and w^ho out of these wins the splendid ul- 
timate triumph." 

In these days of doubt, of lawlessness, of manifest 
determination of some, indeed, of many, to evade the 
law and to defy the will of the majority by acts of law- 
lessness and by teaching such evil to others, it is well 
to ponder what Theodore Rosevelt said in his Message 
to Congress, January, 1904: ''Every man must be 
guaranteed his liberty and his right to do as he likes 
with his property or his labor, so long as he does not 
infringe the rights of others. No man is above the 
law and no man is below it ; nor do we ask any man's 
permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience 
to the law is demanded as a right, not asked as a 
favor." 

At Philadelphia, in June, 1900, in seconding the 
nomination of Willi m McKinley, Theodore Roose- 
velt, speaking prophetically, said, "We stand on the 
threshold of a new century, a century big with the 
fate of the great nations of the earth. It rests with us 
to decide whether in the opening years of that cen- 
tury we shall march forward to great triumphs, or 
whether at the outset we shall deliberately cripple 
ourselves for the contest. Is America a weakling to 
shrink from the world-work to be done by the world 
powers? No! The young Giant of the West stands 
on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in 
either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and 
strength, looks into the future with fearless and 
eager eyes, and rejoices as a strong man to run a 
race. We do not stand in craven mood, asking to be 
spared the task, cringing as we gaze on the contest. 
No! We challenge the proud privilege of doing the 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 55 

work that Providence allots us, and we face the conn- 
ing years high of heart and resolute of faith that to 
our people is given the right to win such honor and 
renown as has never yet been granted to the peoples 
of mankind/' 

SIDELIGHTS ON ROOSEVELT 
A Sister's. Memories 

Roosevelt^s sister, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, 
speaking before the Department of Superintendence 
of the National Education Association, opened her 
heart in appreciation of her brother's love for books 
and pictured his early years when, as a mere boy, he 
was a diligent reader. This habit of reading, so early 
acquired, he maintained throughout his life. His was 
a well-informed mind, and he turned the wide knov/1- 
edge thus gained to good account in his public ser- 
vice. Mrs. Robinson said : 

"My earliest memories of my brother, Theodore 
Roosevelt, are in the nursery at 28 East 20th Street, 
in the house which the patriotic women of America 
hope to rebuild and refurnish with all that is left of the 
old furniture, and thus visualize to his fellow country- 
men the simple environment in which Theodore Roose- 
velt grew to early boyhood. In that nurseiy, the little 
sufferer, for he was a fragile and delicate boy almost 
always in the throes of severe asthma, in spite of his 
suffering was from the very beginning an inspiration 
to his younger brother and sister along literary lines. 
As a tiny boy of six, before I can remember him, my 
mother described him as never failing to have under 
his right arm Wood's Natural Historij, and under his 
left Stanley's Life of Livingstone in the Jungles of 
Africa. The delicate child, from the moment that he 
could read the printed page, was able to concentrate 



56 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

himself with that extraordinary power which became 
later such a factor in his assimilation of knowledge on 
the marvelous interests of nature and the exciting ad- 
ventures of the great explorer. The child indeed in 
Theodore Roosevelt's case was father to the man, for 
to the last days of his varied and busy life, his inter- 
est in bird lore and in adventurous explorations was 
as keen as when the fair curly head used to be bent in 
absolute intensity of concentration over the pages of 
the Natural History, or African adventures. 

"In those days before I can remember, the story 
ran that he became absorbed in reading about the won- 
derful habits and methods of the ants. Turning the 
page of his huge volume, at the head of the following 
page the narrative continued, 'The foregoing ant 
also has such unusual characteristics.' The young 
naturalist, not realizing that the word *f oregoing* re- 
ferred to the ants of whose habits he had already 
read, decided that the adjective in question was ap- 
plied to a new species, and after ardent investigation 
of the habits of this supposedly new species of ant, 
he decided to write an article (remember this was 
at the age of six) entitled *The Foregoing Ant,' and 
having accomplished this feat in a large, painstaking, 
babyish hand, he then called the members of the 
household together to listen to his essay on this 
hitherto unknown representative of the ant family. 
One can well imagine the amused attitude of the 
'grown people' of 28 East 20th Street when they 
listened to the earnest little author delivering his 
astute analysis of the ways of life of his new-found 
protege. Those comprehending 'grown-up people' 
of that old house, however, knew better than to 
ridicule the budding genius of the small member of 
the household, and it was not until many years after- 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 57 

wards that the boy, Theodore, discovered how much 
amused his parents had been at his first scientific 
and literary effort. 

*'In that same nursery, the little boy of eight wove 
many stories of bird and beast such as Kipling himself 
hardly surpassed in his Jungle Stories, and there was 
always a boy in Theodore's stories, a boy very much 




Ll XiUUJ. Llil-lt.lV.UUU ItUU CilUUlWUUU 

Roosevelt, the Lover of Children 

In the library at Sagamore Hill, his Oyster Bay home, "with three of his 
grandchildren 



58 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

like Mowgli of the Kipling tales, a boy who understood 
with rare sympathy the habits and the language of his 
feathered and furry friends, and whose name in the 
particular case of which I write, I am sure in the boy's 
own mind, was Theodore Roosevelt. 

"These first literary inclinations grew apace with 
my brother and always he was seen with large volumes 
under his arms. In the midst of family excitements, 
in the midst of rollicking gaiety, he could absent him- 
self in spirit so completely that I have seen him stand 
for hours on one foot, with a huge encyclopedia rest- 
ing upon the knee, in entire oblivion of time, space, 
and environment. By the time he was thirteen years 
old, he was extraordinarily well informed, both from a 
historical and scientific standpoint, and the winter 
which we spent upon the Nile was one of constant 
study, by the young naturalist, of the new species in 
that part of the world, so rich in endless varieties of 
birds. He had learned both perseverance and concen- 
tration, and they were always to remain factors in the 
success of his achievements. 

"He writes from Dresden where my father had 
placed us to study German during the summer of 1873, 
following our winter on the Nile, *I am asking Frau- 
lein Anna to give us harder lessons, for I do not think 
we are learning enough.' How rare a request on the 
part of a boy of fourteen, but the thirst for knowl- 
edge in the heart and mind of Theodore Roosevelt 
could never be slaked ; German philosophy, German 
fiction, Gei-man scientific literature were devoured 
that summer with equal avidity, and it was during 
that same period that he launched into embryonic 
fiction himself, in a quaint little tale called *Mrs. 
Mouse's Dinner Party,' which was written for the 
great ^Dresden Literary American Club/ formed by 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 59 

five little American children in Dresden during those 
summer days of 1873. 

*Terhaps the most extraordinary thing connected 
with my brother's literary attainments was the diver- 
sity of his interests. He was a very remarkable his- 
torian, not only having an accurate and all-embracing 
knowledge of American history, but of every other 
history, of nearly every nation. During his much- 
heralded trip abroad in 1910, the inhabitants of the 
various countries which he visited were simply aston- 
ished at his knowledge of their great men and great 
historical events. In Hungary he surpassed in accu- 
rate intimacy of Magyar lore even the most famous 
of Hungary's own scholars. In Egypt, his acquaint- 
ance with the travels of Egyptians, at the same pe- 
riod as the time of Marco Polo, was equally astonish- 
ing; wherever he went, his information, political, 
historical, and literary, of the country which he was 
visiting, proved a matter of perpetual wonder on the 
part of his hosts. One reason for his unlimited in- 
formation was that he never wasted a moment of 
time. He always knew the book he wanted to read, 
he always had that book where he could find it at a 
moment's notice, and he also had the power of such 
unusual concentration that although hundreds of 
people might be talking about him, he could detach 
himself and become lost to the contemporary world 
in a moment of time. 

**He was a great lover of poetry, especially all poems 
which had in them the lilt and swing of sonorous 
rhythm. He loved Swinburne and Kipling, and was 
an ardent admirer of Longfellow's ballads, especially 
the 'Saga of King Olaf.' He always felt that Long- 
fellow was not sufficiently admired in his own coun- 
try, and once laughingly announced that he meant to 



60 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

travel the breadth of our great country to inspire a 
deeper love of Longfellow in the hearts of Ameri- 
cans. 

"Mr. John Burroughs, the v^ell-known naturalist, al- 
ways felt that my brother was his peer in the special 
literature connected with his specialties, and in the 
same way, Mr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of 
the Museum of Natural History, was perpetually more 
and more surprised by his knowledge of mammals. 

"Every now and then he would get enormous sat- 
isfaction from a detective story, or from some simple 
story of human life which happened to touch his 
tenderness of heart or his rectitude of purpose. 

"Book lover he was indeed, in the truest and deepest 
sense of the word, and he not only loved books for their 
own value, for the value which they gave in interpret- 
ing world issues and world evolution, but he had the 
power of so assimilating the information which he 
gathered from a book, that, in turn, he was able to give 
to others again that information, touched by the 
spirit of his own wonderful personality.'* 

The brother of whom Mrs. Robinson speaks so ap- 
preciatively was not only a tireless reader, a well-in- 
formed man on many subjects, he was a voluminous 
and versatile writer. Besides his speeches and maga- 
zine articles, his formal volumes, covering important 
fields of history, biography, political and social econ- 
omy, science, and adventure, are among the most wide- 
ly read books of this generation. Among them are: 
The Naval Operations of the War Between Great 
Britain and the United States— 1812-1815 (1882) ; 
Hunting Trips of a Ranchman (1885) ; Life of Thomas 
Hart Benton (1886) ; Life of Gouvemeur Morris 
(1887) ; Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail (1888) ; 
The Winning of the West (1889-1896) ; The Rough 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 61 

Riders (1899) ; Life of Oliver Cromivell (1900) ; 
Hunting the Grizzly (1903) ; Outdoor Pastimes of an 
American Hunter (1906) ; African Game Trails 
(1910) ; Autobiography (1913) ; Life Histories of 
African Game Animals (1914) ; Through the Brazilian 
Wilderness (1914) ; A Booklover's Holidays in the 
Open (1916). In addition may be mentioned the fol- 
lowing collected essays, lectures, and speeches: 
American Ideals (1897) ; True Americanism (1910) ; 
African and European Addresses (1910) ; Realizable 
Ideals (1912) ; History as Literature (1913) ; Nation- 
al Strength and International Duty (1917). 

Since Roosevelt's death have appeared: Theodore 
Roosevelt's Letters to His Children; Theodore Roose- 
velt and His Time Shoivn in His Oivn Letters; and 
many collected essays and speeches. The number of 
books about Roosevelt is amazing. One could fill a 
library with them. Among the best biographies that 
have appeared are those by Corinne Roosevelt Robin- 
son, Jacob Riis, William Roscoe Thayer, James Mor- 
gan, C. G. Washburn, and Hermann Hagedorn. 

Glimpses of Roosevelt's Home Life 
Theodore Roosevelt's home life was ideal. He had 
six children, Alice, Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archi- 
bald, and Quentin. Of them he was passionately fond, 
and to their education and training, as well as their 
amusement, he gave much time. The home at Oyster 
Bay was unusually attractive — not pretentious, but 
comfortable. Children of the neighborhood came and 
went at will, and those in the Roosevelt family had 
abundant freedom to grow up happily and sanely. 
Even at the White House there was freedom, and the 
official atmosphere of the fine old mansion was not al- 
lowed to overawe the youngsters. 



62 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

Although because of his poor health as a child 
Roosevelt was unable to attend a public school, he 
always believed in the public schools and gave to 
public education his hearty, forceful support. Three 
of his children attended the Cove Neck school, near 
Oyster Bay, until they were "graduated." It was a 
plain country school, the sort that has made so many 
of our best men and women. This little school he 
loved and to it he gladly sent his children. With the 
teacher of this roadside country school Roosevelt 
arranged a great Christmas program. At his ex- 
pense a tree was set up and every pupil had a pres- 
ent from Santa Claus. For twenty-two years Roose- 
velt personally attended these exercises and gave the 
presents from Saint Nick to the happy children. In 
1918, when he was in the hospital, he sent his son 
Archie to act for him. He believed so fully in the 
public school and in the fundamental good in chil- 
dren that he once wrote, *'0f course what we have a 
right to expect of the American boy is that he shall 
turn out to be a good American man. Now, the 
chances are that he won't be much of a man unless 
he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward 
or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must be 
clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his 
own under all circumstances and against all comers. 
It is only on these conditions that he will grow into 
the kind of man of whom America can really be 
proud.'' 

Roosevelt always found time to companion his boys, 
and to his fatherly care and concern they owe much. 
To them he looked for large usefulness to the country, 
and from them he enjoyed fullest respect and loving 
loyalty. He never forgot the happy family life of 
his own childhood. His sister Anna was older than 



THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 63 

the others and seemed to belong with the adults, but 
'Teedie," with his sister ''Conie" (Corinne, later 
Mrs. Robinson), and his brother Elliott (who died in 
early manhood), were made happy by the devotion 
of a great-hearted father, a tender mother, and a 
charming aunt who lived with the Roosevelts and 
was loved by all the children, including numerous 
young cousins who made the house their headquar- 
ters. 

No doubt the remembrance of his own boyhood 
strongly influenced Theodore Roosevelt's attitude to- 
ward his own family when he became a man. His 
public duties often called him away from home, but 
he was never too far away or too busy to keep in touch 
not only with his wife and sisters, but with all his 
children. To them he sent letters of loving concern, 
in which he always treated the children as his intel- 
lectual equals. He never "wrote down'' to them, for 
he knew what they were interested in and he was 
genuinely interested in the same subjects. With his 
deep love for friends, for fellow men, for all living 
things — birds, animals, trees, flowers — always was a 
deeper, more tender love for home and family. For 
the children he always provided an old-fashioned 
Christmas. *'I wonder," he writes, ''whether there 
ever can come in life a thrill of greater exultation and 
rapture than that which comes to one between the ages 
of say six and fourteen, when the library door is 
thrown open and you walk in to see all the gifts, like 
a materialized fairyland, arrayed on your special 
table." 

In fact, the letters were written to keep alive in his 
children's hearts that fine spirit of comradeship which 
he gave so gladly when he was with them in the home 
at Sagamore Hill or in the White House. Their games 



64 THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT 

were his games. Their pleasures were his pleasures. 
With them he romped in the old barn at Sagamore 
Hill, played *'tickley" at bedtime, and joined in the 
pillow fights. Of these memories he writes, concern- 
ing an urgent demand that he join in a romp in the 
old barn, *'I had not the heart to refuse, but really it 
seems, to put it mildly, rather odd for a stout, elder- 
ly President to be bouncing over hayricks, in a wild 
effort to get to goal before an active midget of a 
competitor, aged nine years. However, it was really 
great fun." 

In 1905 he wrote his daughter Ethel a letter that 
shows how his heart was touched by the fact that his 
boys had grown to the age when they no longer 
needed him as a playmate. There was a party of 
boys, guests of Quentin, playing in the White House. 
*They played hard, and it made me realize how old 
I had grown and how very busy I had been the last 
few years to find that they had grown so that I was 
not needed in the play. Do you recollect how^ we 
all of us used to play hide-and-go-seek in the White 
House, and have obstacle races down the hall when 
you brought in your friends?" 

When he was arranging for the publication of these 
letters to his own children he declared, "I would rather 
have this book published than anything that has ever 
been written about me." 

The letters are chummy, intensely human, delight- 
fully humorous and teeming with just such informa- 
tion as a boy or a girl would naturally enjoy. They 
are both informing and entertaining. It is a tribute, 
unique and honorable, that Theodore Roosevelt, the 
foremost man of his day, would turn from the great 
problems of his country to give thought to the loved 
ones in his home. 



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